reviews

​Willie Nile (from the album Children of Paradise available on River House Records)The relationship between a human and a guitar takes many paths, six strings and five fingers can bring comfort and ease troubled souls as well as leading a sing-a-long. The words attached to the song provide options, the guitar supporting with a rhythmic drive to match action with thought. Willie Nile is part of a long-standing tradition of NYC Folk singers, words and music that make difference as the message becomes a mission. On his recent release, Children of Paradise, Willie Nile once again clearly shows he is not your grandma’s Folk singer as he plugs his six strings into an amplifier and turns it up loud. Children of Paradise plants “Seeds of a Revolution” as an album opener, chiming guitars leading a worldwide community of the men and women into the streets. Willie Nile has a spit and snarl delivery that checkmarks the abuses to our planet in “Earth Blues”, underlines “I Defy” in blood red beats, sways on a Folk Rock Country rhythm to remind that it is “Getting’ Ugly Out There”, and opens his heart to show a “Secret Weapon” of love.​Saving the world starts at home, and for Willie Nile, the catalyst for the songs on Children of Paradise was to fill personal needs, stating that ‘I made this album because I needed a pick-me-up from the blues that’s all around us. The music always lifts my spirits, and that’s what these songs do for me and it’s why I wrote them. Hopefully they can lift others’ spirits as well’. While politics pushes the pen of Willie Nile, Children of Paradise carves out some fun for its characters when the revolution for the lady in “Rock’n’Roll Sister” comes from the purr of the engine pushing her down the highway as a motley crew heads out for a night on the town in “All Dressed Up and No Place to Go”. Subtlety gets stomped under the pound of drums as Willie Nile leads the faithful into a chorus of “don’t let the fuckers kill your buzz’ in “Don’t” and keeps the beat going to shout-out a prayer for the Children of Paradise title track.Listen and buy the music of Willie Nile from AMAZONhttp://www.willienile.com/